It has been said, “a monastery is a sacred space for sacred time….and people are attracted to seek retreats when they need renewal and quiet time to reflect.”

Many monasteries do accommodate men, women, children and single people. They usually provide delicious, simple and inexpensive meals form food grown on the grounds. The lodging costs vary from freewill donations to $21.50 a night to $95.00 a night, which include all meals. There are special rates for weekend stays and for educational seminar week-long retreats.

Pecos Benedictine Monastery

This Benedictine Monastery is located in the Pecos River valley, north of Santa Fe near the town of Pecos. The monastery is situated on 900 acres which are surrounded by the Sangre de Cristo Mountains; hiking trails; animal havens; clean air; lots of sunshine. They offer personal “hermitages” for a few days or longer, plus educational and inspirational retreat programs though out the year. The individual “hermitage rooms” are located in one building and are self contained spaces with a sitting area and desk, along with kitchenette, bed, bathroom and a large panoramic window that looks over the canyon. The suggested donation is $75 per night.

The Abbey of Gethsemani

This is a Trappist monastery located in Kentucky near Bardstown, in Trappist. The monastery is famous for once being the “home” of Thomas Merton, who is considered one of the spiritual writers and leaders of the 20th century. This a place of hospitality for people who are seeking “a place apart” from the regular, busy, noisy clatter and chatter “to entertain silence in the heart and listen for the voice of God…….to pray for your own discovery” (Thomas Merton). Founded in 1848, this has always been a place full of visitors from around the world. Reservations are required and accommodations are simple, but spacious. There are single rooms and double bed rooms each with their own bathroom. The guest wing is handicap accessible; air-conditioned; non-smoking; elevator ready to all four floor; communal dining and has an on-site library that is open to all. Meatless meals are served daily and religious services are open to all visitors. This is a popular get-a-way retreat and reservations are taken up to 4 months before the date your wish to visit. The cost is a free-will donation based upon what you can afford. Men and women are both welcome here.

Zen Mountain Monastery

You will find this sanctuary on 200 secluded and rustic acres in the Catskill Mountains of New York State. The monastery is surrounded by the New York State Forest Preserve, which provide miles of hiking trails and beautiful untouched nature settings. The main building, a 4 level earthy stone abode was built in the early 20th century, houses the meditation center, dining hall, library, classrooms and dormitory style guest quarters with communal bathrooms. Educational Retreats are held from May through October, along with month long residency programs and I year residency programs. All meals are vegetarian and included in the cost of a retreat session. You must contact them for actual set costs for various retreat programs. The 1 month retreat residency program cost around $650 for the month.

Holy Trinity Monastery

This Benedictine monastery was once the Wilderness Ranch for Boys back in the 1960's. It is located approximately 14 miles north of Tombstone and 17 miles from Cochise in the heart of what once was the Apache Native American stronghold. This is a “semi-contemplative monastery” that offers guest facilities for individual or group retreats, which are expected to respect the monastic exercise of “silence, solitude, simple living, prayer and communal meals.” Holy Trinity Monastery is known for its “Taize'” for peace on Fridays and its involvement with Cultural Arts, The San Pedro Valley Center for the Arts is located at the monastery. The guest quarters offer 11 rooms that can accommodate single people or couples. There is a reading room, prayer place, communal lounge area, gazebos and other spaces for educational sessions. This monastery also offers RV spaces for rent. Individuals pay $40 per night and double occupancy is $60 per night with all meals being extra. The RV park rental is $15 per night.

New Camaldoli Hermitage

Located 1,300 feet above sea level in a very secluded area of the Santa Lucia Mountains, near the infamous Big Sur , this monastery offers breathe taking views of the California coastline and Pacific ocean. Founded in 1958, by 3 Benedictine monks from Camaldoli, Italy, the monks live here “as a community of hermits” and have private cells in a private enclosed enclave. They are well known for their brandy dipped fruitcakes and date-nut cakes which are shipped world-wide. They follow the words of their founder St. Romuald” “Sit in your cell as in paradise. Put the world behind you and forget it. Watch your thoughts like a good fisherman watching for fish”. You can either take a solo retreat or group retreat to this remote monastery all year long. The retreat center has 9 private rooms with baths and private gardens that over-look the ocean. Also offered is a communal kitchen where vegetarian meals and homemade bread may be picked up. The monastery offers 5 trailer retreats located on the hillside below the main center, which are very private and include: full bath, refrigerator, small cook top, food items and sun decks. You need to reserve your rooms at least 6 months in advance and trailers 1 year in advance, as this is an extremely popular monastery for retreats. The suggested private cell retreat is $70 donation per night and the trailer donation is $80 per night.

If, you are looking for the unusual vacation or need an inspirational get-a-way here are 5 places you may want to look into and there are 100's more available across America.

When my boyfriend had suggested going to Hong Kong a month before, I was a little dubious. After all, it was an extremely expensive flight and I felt slightly alarmed at traveling further than I'd ever been before from my home in Dublin. He, the lucky beggar, had been in Australia for six weeks on a sabbatical and was busy sunning himself on Bondi beach while I was left to make my decision. Eventually, I decided to throw caution and credit card to the wind and I booked my ticket. I spent four excited weeks buying guide books and figuring out what attractions we could go and see. Then, the day arrived and I flew into London, feeling mildly annoyed that there are no Hong Kong flights from Ireland.

I have often wondered what it must be like to be American; to live in a country of such vast expanses. Ireland is such a tiny country (I think we would fit into Texas about thirty times) that we Irish are used to getting where we want to go quickly by car or train. It only takes three hours to drive from one side of the country to the other. As you can imagine, I'm not a frequent long haul flier and the prospect of fourteen hours from London was making me distinctly nervous.

It turned out my fears were justified: I was stuck in a window seat beside an enormous British soldier who kept his elbow in my face for much of the flight. Luckily, the wine kept me hazy enough to ignore the agonizing cramps in my legs. I'm not very materialistic but I do envy rich people their ability to fly business class! I spent an uncomfortable night thinking jealously of those smug business men sitting in the front of the plane in their super luxurious faux leather arm chairs!

When I finally reached Causeway Bay, the district where my hostel was located, all I could do was sink onto the bed and rip of my grubby clothes. That would have been fine, apart from the fact that the bed had the consistency of frozen concrete or possibly titanium. I resolved then and there to never throw myself onto a bed again without first checking the feel of it with my hand. My spine is still wonky.

Our hostel was about ten stories high and our room had a small window which looked onto a dingy alley of the kind where rumbles take place in Hong Kong cop movies. I could hear families chatting and dishes clinking as I drifted to sleep. The most unexpected surprise of my sojourn was the temperature. I had expected humidity of the tropical kind which makes it difficult to breathe and muggy heat drifting up from the pavements. To my annoyance, I found it was colder than Ireland! When I woke up the next morning, (C had arrived from Sydney by that stage), I struggled into my big woolly jumper, usually reserved for winter.

Apart from the disappointment of the weather, I was monumentally impressed with Hong Kong. The street scape of neon lights, skyscrapers and tropical trees was an overpowering vista. None of what I had read about it in my guide book prepared me for it. My favorite aspect of the Island is how even though modern buildings cover the shore line; it still feels wild and verdant. Although obviously touched by human hand, the close vicinity of the sea, the peak and the forests reminiscent of jungles means it retains its air of mystery. It's not just "another city". One of the problems of urbanization is that so many cities are uniform. However, this city has retained its individual character.

I loved riding on the ferry to Kowloon and Lantau. The journey to Kowloon only took about two minutes but the close up view of the harbor is impressive enough, particularly at night. The return journey from Lantau is spectacular: zooming in on ricocheting waves with the view of the Excelsior Hotel and other imposing buildings quickly approaching. My eyes were glued to the ferry windows, trying to drink in everything. C was looking distinctly green at this point as he doesn't sail too well and the motion of the waves was rocking our seats!

However, my favorite ferry ride of the trip was undoubtedly the evening cruise to watch the light show. The ferry sails out to the middle of the harbor about twenty to eight in the evening. It gently stays there rocking while tourists cluster around the edge of the boat. The light show occurs on both sides of the harbor and a start at eight pm. Music was piped out of the boat and the buildings lit up in time to the music.

One building would light up in fluorescent pink and then others would follow suit, changing color every few minutes, lighting up the dark sky. The irony is that the buildings are mundane by day; a bank, an electricity company, but by night, they perform in a world class show. Blue, red, gold, green followed each other to the beat of the music. By the time it ended, the cluster of tourists was left in an awestruck hush at what they had seen. The show is certainly not environmentally friendly because it uses up vast amounts of electricity every night but it is one of the few cases of a worthwhile use of energy.

Food was lavish. Generally, we ate noodles from a nearby café for breakfast, or dim sum, which was drowned in soy sauce. Afternoon tea at the peninsula hotel is a must though. The Peninsula hotel is the most elegant and expensive hotel in Kowloon. The lobby is plush and covered in gilt and the visitor can watch the front door where illustrious guests glide through fresh from Mercedes and Bentleys. Eating cucumber sandwiches in Hong Kong reminds one of its colonial past. The sandwiches were served with crisp breakfast tea and dainty cakes. Chinese food is delicious and extremely healthy but I have to confess to craving a bacon sandwich with brown sauce by the end of the ten days!

The Ten thousand Buddha monastery lies in the northern part of Kowloon. It took us five metro stops to get to the general area. We were then flummoxed as on the map it looks very close to the metro but we couldn't find it. We went into Chinese real estate agents where we asked some helpful realtors. They wrote the Chinese symbols for the monastery on a piece of paper so we could show it to a taxi driver.

To our amusement, it turned out that the monastery was very far away indeed from the metro station contrary to what the guidebook said. Once we arrived, we found ourselves in a small forest at the base of a hill. We could see macaque monkeys bounding through the trees. It was a family group. A baby macaque swung from a branch by his tail and peered at us. My good friend Rupali told me that a monkey once bit her in India, so I was a trifle nervous of them even though they looked like cuddly monkey toys.

I decided to make a wide berth between the monkeys and hurried up the steps to the monastery. My fears were justified as I soon saw a sign that said "Do not tease or feed the monkeys". My imagination created all kinds of scenarios where innocent day-trippers were attacked by rabid monkeys. I hurried up the steps faster.

The stairs to the monastery were ancient cracked stone and on each side of them stood numerous large gold Buddha statues. Each Buddha had his own personality and facial expression. There was the jolly Buddha, the sad Buddha, the Buddha with a beard, the naughty Buddha, etc… Each one held an offering of a white biscuit in his hand with a red marking on it. The sheer number of the Buddhas is impressive. They follow one all the way up the steps. At the top, there is a selection of little temples and one large courtyard which has a view of the surrounding forests and apartment buildings. At either side of the courtyard are a giant elephant statue and a dog. In the middle is an ornate tower. The visitor can go inside and climb up to the top.

Inside the tower and indeed everywhere around the courtyard were fragrant offerings of incense, oranges and biscuits. The main temple has a beautiful curvaceous roof. Inside, it is dark except for the fact that it is lit up by the thousands of tiny Buddha statues that line its walls in small compartments. They are arranged from the floor to the ceiling. They dazzle the eyes. The color scheme of the walls is dominated by rich red with a velvet texture.

In the middle of the temple is a statue of Tin Hau, the Hong Kong God of the sea, with a treasure trove of offerings in front of him ranging from chocolate to every imaginable kind of fruit. The color and vibrancy of Buddhist temples reminds the visitor of a jewelery box filled with treasures. The peace and tranquility of the buildings lulls one into calm. I liked watching worshipers rhythmically swaying their incense in front of the Buddha. The scent of the incense is heady and soporific.

We spent a long time just sitting in the courtyard looking out over the valley and listening to monks chanting in the sunlight. It was the first sunny day of the trip and the Buddhas and I were basking in the heat. We took many photos of the monastery but none seem to do it justice.

It's a place I keep returning to in my mind, so enchanted was I by the simplicity and peace and as I reluctantly wedged myself into my seat for the fourteen hour flight home, I still considered myself glad that I had the opportunity to explore a part of the world which was both foreign and familiar to me.